Swiss Re Building Offices

By Editorial Staff - 11 January 2010

Mr Teherani, you are considered an exponent of contemporary art, as your progressive architecture constantly underlines. Did you have a special talent with materials in your childhood; did you experiment a lot?

I could always draw well. I remember doing portraits at six or seven that were indistinguishable from the original. That’s all really. I dreamed a lot and was fairly creative. I suppose I knew the field of work that would suit me best.

Do you have to be a good observer?

Oh yes. You have to be able to see things that others perhaps miss first time round and be able to project them into the future; know how something’s going to look in the end.

What culture has influenced you most?

The biggest influence has always been life itself - anything and everything that affects me. I often mingle with people, observe what’s going on, what might be going on tomorrow, what the younger or older generations are doing. And of course, what’s happening in the rest of the world. I try to capture in my buildings everything that leaves an impression on me. The holistic is very important for me. A building has to work functionally, economically and ecologically. But if it can also create an identity for itself or arouse emotions in people, then I have achieved my goal.

Has any epoch in the history of architecture left a particular impression on you, and still perhaps influences you today?

I suppose we are rooted in the classic-modern and then overlay our own feelings and impressions on that.

But do you also try to develop this idea by including factors currently shaping society?

Yes. Each building is a new challenge. Each time we go back to the drawing board. The Unterföhring project is a clear example. The site we had to build on was basically an open field. What do you do with an open field? I became enthusiastic, however, on learning that our client had a solid corporate culture...